August 4, 2012

Jim Mansfield - DOT Worker State of New Hampshire

On July 26, 2012 at 3:45 am ET I walked out to my pickup truck and placed two very important envelopes on the top ledge of the truck bed body as I loaded my daughter's luggage into the jump seat of the truck.

Because I was still 80 percent asleep, I forgot the envelopes were balanced on this tiny strip of metal real estate. As I drove up the driveway, the light wind fluttered the envelopes into the back of the open truck bed.

We traveled 10 miles to get to exit 20 of Interstate 93 in New Hampshire. As I rounded the entrance ramp and accelerated to 65 mph, the rushing wind grabbed the two envelopes and deposited them on the side of the highway. But I had no clue this had happened.

An hour later as I was driving into the airport to drop off my daughter I muttered, "Uh oh, I lost the letters. I left them on the edge of the truck." As soon as we stopped, we saw they were gone.

A week later, I got a phone call from a NH DOT worker named Jim Mansfield. "Mr. Carter, I found an envelope of yours on the berm of I-93 near exit 20," he exclaimed. He said it would be no problem to return it, and he felt for sure it contained a very important check inside.

He was right. He's also an example of great public sector employees. All too often we hear about the ones that do have bad attitudes, ones that milk the system. It's important to recognize those that are good apples.

Another employee may have never bent over to pick up the envelope. Perhaps another may have just thrown it out.

But Jim, who works out of the #525 Canterbury State Shed didn't. He did his job, and I'm grateful for it.